Here’s a little good news for Stargate fans reeling from the cancellation of Stargate Universe just before Christmas (story). After collapsing under the weight of $5 billion and going into bankruptcy court this month, legendary film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is declaring a Do-Over.

The studio that owns the Stargate television franchise announced Monday that its plan for restructuring the company has become effective. More important for the future of Stargate is that MGM has secured financing of $500 million through JP Morgan, for use in funding its operations and restarting active production of a new slate of film and television projects.

“MGM is emerging from one of the most challenging periods of its storied history,” Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, new Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of MGM, said in a press release. “We are honored and inspired at the opportunity of leading one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios into its next generation of unforgettable filmmaking, global television production and distribution, and aggressively pursuing, developing and exploiting new digital entertainment platforms.

“Beginning today, MGM is a stronger, more competitive company, with a solid financial foundation and a bright future. We look forward to working with MGM’s dedicated employees to build upon this company’s legacy.”

The studio traded its debt to creditors for ownership of most of the restructured company.

MGM has also named eight of the nine positions on its new Board of Directors, which includes Barber and Birnbaum. Former Pixar CFO Ann Mather has been tapped as the Board’s head (via Deadline.com).

One final glimmer of bright, brilliant news for Stargate fans: If MGM’s list of current executives on its Web site is up to date (it does include Barber and Birnbaum, who only officially joined with the restructure), then Charles Cohen is still at the company. Cohen (MGM’s Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer) is a self-proclaimed Stargate fan who has been with the studio since 1986, and has been hugely instrumental in the franchise’s success so far.

Keep your browser locked on GateWorld as we head into 2011 for more news on the future of Stargate! We hope to hear some good news early in the new year about Stargate‘s piece of that new production money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darren created GateWorld in 1999, and today is the owner and managing editor. He lives in the Seattle area with his wife and three children. (More)

I highly doubt there will be an SGA movie or miniseries. Why? It’s simple, most props/sets have either been destroyed or sold (Atlantis gate in pieces I think). Don’t forget that the SGC set was dismantled and bits were re-used for Icarus base.

Not to mention the fact that most if not all SGA actors are “busy” filming other shows/films. SGA had it’s time. Just as SG1. And with the poor writing during the second half of season 5 I highly doubt a movie would be worth watching. Perhaps they will find a piece of technology in pegasus that will make the wraith believe they are pixies… ala Ark of truth.. -_-

This is good news. As far as the props having been sold, They can be remade for a mini-series for sga and then re-commissioned for something else. Besides, even though the actors are busy doing something else, I think they would jump on board for a short time to do it.

I would love to see the 2 promised movies made. However, I’m not very confident they will be made. As regards the Atlantis movie I don’t thinks it’s believable that Home World Command would let Atlantis leave Earth or the Milky Way Galaxy at least. Especially seen as the Drone chair was destroyed.

Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, new Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of MGM, said in a press release. “We are honored and inspired at the opportunity of leading one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios into its next generation of unforgettable filmmaking, global television production…”

Great news for the Stargate franchise & all
of the Stargate fans.
I remember in a interview Brad Wright saying
that the Stargate Franchise is the second most
important/profitable franchise for MGM ; James Bond being the first one.
So, if Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are serious & honest that means the Stargate franchise is going to go on in a very strong way.

P.S. Thanks Darren for posting this news just in time for Christmas & giving Stargate fans hope.
Merry Christmas to you & to all Stargate fans =)

I think that maybe they will focuse theyr atention on SGU since its the latest show and the actors are still available and the sets are still up and operational. Maybe MGM will look for a new channel to air SGU who knows or a movie will be planned to end the series. Thats my guess, a SGA movie would be nice maybe after SGU is wrapt up.

I’m already the proud owner of a Season 1 Blu-ray set and am committed to purchasing Season 2 as soon as it comes out. I hope more of you will do the same. I only wish SGA was on Blu-ray so I could support the franchise further, but I can’t bring myself to buying a lowly DVD. Cheers and Merry Christmas to all!

Yes, i think that is a good idea.
Some people are still hoping that SYFY will fight for SG-Universe(Since they already helped launching it, they might as well fight for it)& others have their own suggestions
about what could be done to save SG-Universe.

gilbak quote “Is it not possible for other networks possibly from another country to fund SGU ?”

dtguitar quote “since MGM owns the Stargate franchise, isn’t it possible that it could lease it to another network that might be interested in picking up the show?”

knowles2 quote “I think MGM should use SGU and the Stargate franchise to explore new ways to sell there content directly to the audience, it’s the way the industry is moving, in the UK several productions firms are already moving ahead with developing their own distribution channels on new platforms such as Google TV or Youview, basically they are apps that live on these platforms but act as channels. The British Film council an Kudos Productions are both working on such project.”

AnthonyBJr quote “should try the farscape approach to get a way to finish off the series. It’s the only way to go.”

Cay quote “NBC owns SGU, right?
Run it on NBC, if they start soon, they can run it for the next 15 weeks, then air season 2.5. It will cost them nothing. At that point, they will know if there’s any new fans or not.”

Ideal situation? Season 3 conclusion to SGU, SG-1 and Atlantis movies (or miniseries) and a fourth series in development! Maybe a good video game made by a KNOWN developer like Bioware (they’re kinda busy now but you get my drift).

@kvasirdor
All they’d need to do is rebuild the sets/props. Thats what they did for Firefly/Serenity. As for the little snib at Ark of Truth, there is a big deffrence; SG-1 had very little time to finish off a storyline that really needed at least another season to properly come to a conclustion, where as Atlantis has had a few years and lets face it, the Wraith aren’t really that big of a threat to Earth (unlike the Ori) anymore.

How about just starting a new series in the SG-1 format. Just push it in xx years ahead. Or something. As it was the SG-1 series that really built the franchise. Sure SG-1 has played out its characters so i don´t mean with the same peoople but just something it that way. But as im writing this the stories maybe where pretty much used up in SG-1. SGA was excellent too. SGU i would say is abit boring to the another series tbh. More action and more world travelling like in SG-1 in a new story/team. But it must be characters like in SG-1/SGA that really stand out. I think in SGU the chars really didn´t feel like they stood out. I mean SG-1 Jack> SGA Sheppard but here is were it went wrong i would say there aren´t really a char like SG-1 Jack or SGA sheppard in SGU or any another of the SG1/SGA chars that really stood out for the rest of the chars. SGU is just aah not my cup of tea tbh. But still its Stargate so its a must watch =). Anyways put the money on a SG-1/SGA movie. And a new series in the franschies.

I think they should relaunch SG:A they got it wrong in cancelling the show and have paid the price with SG:U being cancel after 2 year if SG:A would had not been cancel to make a BSG style SG show it would had got 2 more years.

“I think that maybe they will focuse theyr atention on SGU since its the latest show and the actors are still available and the sets are still up and operational. Maybe MGM will look for a new channel to air SGU who knows or a movie will be planned to end the series. Thats my guess, a SGA movie would be nice maybe after SGU is wrapt up.”

Sorry, SGU had its chance and failt. Now it’s time for the promised SGA-movie.

Stargate is as dead as Julius Caesar for a while now. Even Mallozzi rightly asserts that 3 year old SGA numbers don’t account for much anymore. Imagine going back to season 2 of Star Trek if after it had divided the fanbase in half and trying to get a season 3.

Their total “all or nothing” arrogance ensured there would be no plan B for a wrap up of SGU at the end of S2. Stargate will be going out on some over-hyped SGU “cliffhanger”. And unless anyone can convince the money that SGU was anything other than a massive fail with the networks and the fans nothing’s going to change otherwise.

Great news… A least there is now a glimmer of hope for a resurrection of of SGU.
Best case scenario is a complete third season with potential for more if it grows a larger fan base. But even a tv movie or two to round of the SGU story would be better than nothing. Not allowing the latest SGU franchise to finish properly would be an insult to the last 14 years of Stargate…

Greetings to all. I have been an observer on GateWorld for many years now and this is my first posting.

I have been a great fan of Stargate since the beginning of the franchise. I have enjoyed each of Stargate’s incarnations, for themselves and for their part in the greater Stargate mythology.

I have read the comments posted to the various articles about the cancellation of SG:U over the last few days. I have also been doing research on the Internet. What I have learned makes me believe that the cancellation of SG:U, and indeed the cancellation of so many other sci-fi series over the last decade, is not the fault of the writers of those series or the fans. Nor is it really the fault of the networks regardless of the tinkering they may do to a particular show’s position in the weekly schedule. It is a failure of the system. That’s right, the ratings system. This is the system that tells networks, production companies and corporate advertisers whether a given show is worth their investment of time and money. It is this system, the Neilsen TV rating system, that is ultimately at fault. It has failed to keep up with the ever growing numbers of viewers since Nielsen Media Research developed its’ rating system in the 1950′s (From a few tens of thousands of viewers to 200 million plus). And it has failed to keep up with the ever changing face of home entertainment media (remember when your home got its’ first VHS, or for the slightly older generation who remembers it, the Sony Betamax. Thus began the age of millions of thumbs pressing FF to bypass the commercials).

I did some digging around and found an article that I think best describes how the Nielsen system works and why it doesn’t work. It is a bit of a read but I recommend everyone read it for themselves’ and draw your own conclusions.

Mentat, I have two questions, if I may ask:
1) why suddenly SG is dead? I thought you guys main line was ‘SGU is dead, thanks God, now let’s move forward with new series or planned movies’. What was basis for your assumption that it will work that way?
2) Do you have any numbers to back up your ‘half of fan base hates SGU’ statement? Again, just curious. What about seemingly bunch of fresh newcommers who were introduced to SG franchise trough SGU? Aren’t they fans too?

I’m very tempted to go to little flame war with you, but I simply want to understand. Why do you hate SGU and us, who love it so much?

Don’t count on them to spend this new money on more SGU; the show was cancelled for a reason. This is MGM’s fresh start, and they’re going to want to become self-sufficient again by spending this money on projects that they feel are guaranteed to make money, not a show that had ratings so abysmal that Syfy washed their hands of it.

And as much as I would love to see SG-1 or SGA movies made, I know that’s not going to happen either. The best we can hope for is a new series a few years from now at the earliest, but it really could be that we’d have to go without Stargate for 10 years or more until someone puts together a reboot of SG-1 with a new cast, characters, and stories. We’ll see.

Tekrelm, Caprica had about 40% lower ratings than SGU and SyFy will spend their money for new series – which will be more expensive than Caprica by the way. Somehow it doesn’t add up with your logic.

For MGM ratings in prime is second class argument, DVD and Blu-ray, iTunes, Hulu, also syndication payments matters more. If numbers are healthy in other areas and there are indications that SGU can gain a new fresh crowd for franchise, they will do it.

And again, no, one one will reboot SG. It has been used for 14 years! If SGU is done, franchise is done. For very long time.

Hey how come they didnt auction off Todd’s brown coat? Or did Mr.C.H. kepted it himself. would have loved to have gotten that one. Knew once they sold those wraith coats (especialy the High Commander’s coat) SGA was history. Bring me all the bloopers/outakes, behind the seens and spoofs dvd. Im realy going to miss those wraith, mostly the High Commander and smily.

It’s best that SGU is dead. After reading the last week’s worth of entries on Joseph Mallozzi’s blog, it’s clear that he (and presumably the others) don’t actually understand scifi fans. He thinks that downloading shows has just occurred within the last 2 years when I was doing so with shows back before the Stargate movie was even made, yet alone the shows started. He also apparently thinks that DVR’s are new tech. Real scifi fans aren’t going to watch SGU on their little computer screens. We buy big tv’s so that we can watch scifi. And they blame this for the continued drop in ratings when the average american viewer that Nielsen seeks out doesn’t watch ANYTHING online. The average american viewer is still on lower speed internet access at best and couldn’t really watch TV online even if they wanted to and wouldn’t know how to download entire shows to watch. They really need to just wipe the slate clean on Stargate and get rid of the poison that has taken over the show.

That is good news but i’m hoping that there will be good news on the two moives will get the green light. After the shocking news of the cancelation of SGU, us fans could do with some good news to start of the new year

[...] and therefore can’t produce any Stargate even if they want to. This is not true. As GateWorld reported last December, MGM is out of bankruptcy and in May they started funding new productions including [...]